Several national grassroots organizations on Monday joined Americans for Citizen Voting to voice our opposition to a new law (Local Resident Voting Rights Act) that allows non-citizens to vote in D.C.’s elections. The change in law, unfortunately, went into effect the next day. The purpose of our press conference was to put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring up for a vote SJR 5 and SJR 6 which bans non-citizen voting in The District.
I was joined by Election Transparency Initiative‘s National Chairman Ken Cuccinelli, J. Hogan Gidley, Vice Chair, Center for Election Integrity at America First Policy Institute, and Christian Adams, President & General Counsel at the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
This new law allows non-citizens in the nation’s capital to vote in local elections – whether they are residing in the District legally or illegally. The only requirement is they have to establish residency at least 30 days before the election. To add insult to injury, the law also allows foreign nationals working at the Chinese and Russian embassies and those of other foreign nations to vote in local elections.
A resolution (H.J. Res. 24) to block D.C.’s non-citizen voting ordinance overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House in February and in true bipartisan fashion, with 42 Democrats joining every Republican. However, Senate Democrats have refused to bring H.J. Res. 24 to a vote in the Senate.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz authored a bill in January that would prohibit the Washington, D.C. city government from using federal funds to facilitate non-citizen voting in elections in our nation’s capital. Cruz was unable to attend the press conference but did provide the following statement:
Craziness
They can serve in Congress too no doubt !!!!!
They’ll be able to vote ………….but ONLY for democrats.